These functions save a transcript of your commands and their output to a script file.
They work as combinations of sink and history with a
couple of extra bells and whistles.
txtStart(file, commands=TRUE, results=TRUE, append=FALSE, cmdfile,
visible.only=TRUE)txtOut(Filename=NULL)
txtStop()
txtComment(txt,cmdtxt)
txtSkip(expr)
Text file to save transcript in
A filename to be given for the txtOut command. If this is not specified, the user will be prompted for a filename. If the user presses the enter key, a filename will be automatically generated that is based on the current date and time.
Logical, should the commands be echoed to the transcript file
Logical, should the results be saved in the transcript file
Logical, should we append to file or replace it
A filename to store commands such that it can be
sourced or copied and pasted from
Should non-printed output be included, not currently implemented.
Text of a comment to be inserted into file
Text of a comment to be inserted into cmdfile
An expression to be executed without being included in
file or cmdfile
Most of these commands do not return anything of use. The exception is:
txtSkip returns the value of expr.
These functions are used to create transcript/command files of your R session. In the original TeachingDemos package from which the functions were obtained, there are 3 sets of functions. Those starting with "txt",those starting with "etxt", and those starting with wdtxt.
The "txt" functions create a plain text transcript while the "etxt" functions create a text file with extra escapes and commands so that it can be post processed with enscript (an external program) to create a postscript file and can include graphics as well. The postscript file can be converted to pdf or other format file. The "wdtxt" functions will insert the commands and results into a Microsoft Word document.
Users wishing to have the additional functionality that the "etxt" and "wdtxt" functions provide are advised to make use of the TeachingDemos package.
If results is TRUE and commands is FALSE then the result
is similar to the results of sink. If commands
is true as well then the results will show both the commands
and results similar to the output on the screen. If both
commands and results are FALSE then pretty much
the only thing these functions will accomplish is to waste some
computing time.
If cmdfile is
specified then an additional file is created with the commands
used (similar to the history command), this file can be
used with source or copied and
pasted to the terminal.
The Start function specifies the file/directory to create and starts the transcript, The prompts are changed to remind you that the commands/results are being copied to the transcript. The Stop function stops the recording and resets the prompts.
The txtOut function is a short cut for the txtStart command that uses the current date and time in the filenames for the transcript and command files. This function is not part of the TeachingDemos package.
The R parser strips comments and does some reformatting so the
transcript file may not match exactly with the terminal
output. Use the txtComment functions to add a comment. This will show up as a line offset
by whitespace in the transcript file.
If cmdtxt is specified then that line
will be inserted into cmdfile preceded by a \# so it
will be skipped if sourced or copied.
The txtSkip function will run the
code in expr but will not include the commands or
results in the transcript file (this can be used for side
computations, or requests for help, etc.).
sink, history,
Sweave, the odfWeave package, the R2HTML package, the
R2wd package
# NOT RUN {
txtStart()
txtComment('This is todays transcript')
date()
x <- rnorm(25)
summary(x)
stem(x)
txtSkip(?hist)
hist(x)
Sys.Date()
Sys.time()
# }
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